iPad 6 Stuck on 2% Charge?

Someone gave me an Ipad 6 to fix, (lucky me), the story I got was that it dropped to 2% charge suddenly so they took it to someone out of town ( I think it was one of those small kiosks that you see in shopping malls) who supposedly changed the battery but the problem remains the same . I don't know why they didn't take it back to them or why the repairer didn't check that it was charging? So anyway, plugged in to the power it sits on 2% charge and wont get any further, I've tried different chargers/cables, turning it off and leaving it plugged in overnight. I've also tried the soft reboot thing with the power switch and home button. The ipad also turns itself off presumably cos it thinks it only has 2% charge left?

They basically want me to get their photos off but the ipad wont stay powered up long enough for me to do it. I'm wondering if the battery was actually replaced like they assume, it's the only thing making sense at this point?

Has anyone come across this issue before and/or might have some tips?

Cheers

Comments

  • Thanks go to Google for this suggestion.

    Why is my iPad stuck on 2 percent?

    Try this first - Reset the iPad by holding down on the Sleep and Home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons.

    • +1

      Yep tried that already, on the ipad 6 it's the power button and home button.

      Cheers

  • Does it not stay on when plugged into charge? Or does it not recognise that it's plugged in?

    Also, taking photos with ipads looks and is dumb.

    • +1

      It recognises that it's plugged in and the charging symbol pops up it just doesn't go past 2%. It does not stay on when plugged in and restarts frequently.
      I spoke to the owner and convinced them to take it back to the people who allegedly changed the battery in the first place.

  • This used to be common issue on older iPhones too with failing battery. The OS misreads actual battery percentage and gets stuck in a loop.

    An OS reinstall could be a quick fix but since you cannot do that to keep the pics, you might want to give it a go with a new battery install yourself. Although only $20'ish, unfortunately it's not very easy on the iPad 6 so depends how badly they want those pics.

    https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPad+6+Wi-Fi+Battery+Replacemen…

    One other alternative option is to use a higher amp charging brick to see if it provides enough juice to keep it alive?

    • Cheers, yeah already tried a bigger charger. As per above I spoke to the owner and convinced them to take it back to the people who allegedly changed the battery in the first place.

  • OMFG, My grandmothers doing the exact same thing, it is plugged in and does not drop or go higher then 2%, if we take it off charge. it will die in a few minutes, then we plug it in to charge, and it does not go past 2% Im not sure of the model, but its 4 years old, and has been used heavily for those 4 years. We have tried new official cables and chargers, and confirmed the old ones where working as well chagrining another iDevice. I can only put it down to the battery hey. I think its cactus.

    I do not know if it charges and stays at 2% while plugged into a PC trying to get photos etc off. but if it stays on when plugged in at 2% maybe sign up to a cloud service such as google drive and upload to there. My Grandmothers one stays at 2% and she can power though all day and night if its plugged in.

    EDIT: Just seen comment about it restarting, take it back, I stay away from those places, never had a positive experience tbh.

  • +2

    Have you tried plugging it into a PC/Mac and see if there's an update available in iTunes?

    Sometimes you can potentially "unbrick" an iOS device to fix it/recover the data by running 'Update' in iTunes instead of 'Restore'. When you run Update, it retains the data on the device, vs wiping the device when you run Restore.

    • Cheers, it powers down before I get the chance to do anything with it.

  • let it charge overnight and see how it goes.

    • Yep did that the first night, no change.

      • Looks like the first shop didn't do anything to it, iPad battery replacement is not a 5 min job and I recommend get Apple replace it for $165.

  • +1

    you forgot to buy the apple battery upgrade.

    utilise your full battery capacity for only an extra $10 per month. otherwise your capped at 2%

  • +1
    1. Black 5th (4th) pin: Users have seen a black pin. Many have seen the cable stop charging when the pin turns black.

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252560065

    1. Reset of Cable: Sometimes a cable will refuse to work and users find that it needs to be reset. The cable must be unplugged at both charger and phone, wait 5 seconds and reconnect.

    2. Dust in Port: Dust and lint accumulated in the port due to handling over time can cause connection issues between the cable and device.

    Reference: WikiPedia.

    • Thanks, all the pins look clean, have tried different cables/chargers.

  • Does it stay alive while plugged into a computer? You should be able to get the photos off that way. I can with my iPhone.

    • Nope, it powers down. :(

      • If you can get the app GoodReader on the ios the iPad is on, that may be the solution. You can map a network folder on your computer to the iPad and move files that way. Going to be less tedious than emailing them. The only thing is you have to figure out how to move the photos to the more general files section of the iPad so GoodReader can see them - I've only used it for putting files ON my phone before.
        Edit: just had a look, there's an import files button which goes to your photos so that's sorted

  • I don’t suppose there are any photos in iCloud…??
    We had an ailing battery in a MBP, which spent almost all its time plugged in. Battery on zero. In the end, it seemed to go into limp-home mode and became unusable. Looked at battery replacement options (I still find it offensive that batteries on most new devices are not user replaceable!!) and ended up biting the bullet (during lockdown) and taking it to Apple. They were VG and even replaced a cracked KB surround free of charge. As others have said, I’m disappointed that the repair shop didn’t return the device fully charged- should’ve been part of the testing.

    • HOw much did Apple charge to fix it?

      And no, they didn't have icloud sync turned on. :)

      • Could you just turn iCloud on? If the iPad stays on while plugged in that should work?

        • Im guessing there wont be enough uptime to make the config change much less so the time to push x Gb into the cloud before the battery expires

          • @roonie: But it can be continually plugged in to power. As it is a WiFi thing so doesn't need to be connected to a computer.

            • @Quantumcat: My reading of the issue is that it survives for many seconds before dying (even if plugged in - which Im guessing, is superfluous)

      • youd need to check your device/model but for the 2014(?) MBP, 3rd parties were around $200 (with no specifics mentioned about the battery warranty) and Apple were $259 with warranty

  • cheap fix, swap out the charger port & try a different battery (if you've got a spare device somewhere) …
    if you don't have spare parts, i think the charger port was about 12$ for ipad new (4) not 100% on battery, but 2nd hand broken ipad should be cheap to cannibalise

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